Biological Archives - InnoHEALTH magazine

Micro Plastics – An Invisible Danger to Human Health

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 06:08:48 +0000

Plastics – the wonder material is known for its durability, stability, and affordability – has become a major environmental challenge in recent years. This pervasive nature of plastic in the environment has led to its entry into the human body, posing a threat to human health.

Also Read: Say No to Single Plastic Bags

With over 400 million tons of plastic produced globally every year, the plastic still remains a choice for industries such as cosmetics, food packaging, utensils, etc. Much of waste plastic ends up in dump yards and also gets accumulated in water bodies. A number of studies have shown its adverse effects on the marine ecosystem and its presence in the bodies of marine animals such as fishes, mollusks, turtles etc. The plastic reaches bodies of its producers, humans, by consumption of sea food, closing the full circle.

Also Read: Post Antibiotic World

While macro-plastics remain a visible problem, micro-plastics and nano-plastics which are generated through physical, biological and chemical actions on plastic are emerging as a more serious health hazard. Due to their invisible nature, micro- and nano-plastics can enter human bodies through the use of products that contain nano-plastics such as scrubs, lipsticks, mascara, shampoos, etc., other than by consumption of seafood. Recent studies have also found microplastics in tap and bottled water. The workers in the textile and PVC industries also inhale nano-plastics unknowingly.

‘Other than the food chain, constant contact with day-to-day life plastic products allows oral, dermal and inhalation exposure to micro-plastics and additive chemicals to the human body. Therefore, it is important to determine the interactions between the microplastics and biological macromolecules in order to understand their effects on human health,’ explains Prof. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Professor at Vellore Institute of Technology, who is engaged in studying the impact of microplastics in humans.

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According to the industry estimates, an average Indian consumes approximately 11 kg of plastic products in various forms every year. Though it is much less than what an American or a Chinese does, it is still a problem.

Scientists say that plastic particles can reach our stomach, and depending on their size, these plastics are either excreted, get entrapped in the stomach and intestinal lining or move freely in body fluids such as blood, thereby reaching various organs and tissues of the body. In line with this, a study carried out by Austrian scientists had shown that stool from individuals in eight surveyed countries contained microplastics. Similarly, high levels of BPA (Bisphenol A), a chemical used for making several plastics have been found in the urine of teenagers, in another study done by scientists from the University of Exeter, UK.

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While a number of studies have shown negative effects of plastics on the nervous system, hormones, immune systems together with the cancer-inducing property of plastics are already well known, scientists are now trying to understand how the basic machinery of the body interacts with plastic particles. In a new study, Prof. Chandrasekaran and his colleagues have looked at the interaction of nano-plastics with blood proteins and cells illustrating their adverse effects on human health. The group has shown that nano-plastics aggregate in blood, obstructing its flow in the body and render blood proteins nonfunctional.

For this study, blood was taken from five healthy males and then separated into plasma (protein portion of blood), white blood cells and red blood cells. Researchers then tested the interaction between nano-plastics and plasma. It was found that blood proteins such as albumins, globulins, fibrinogens, which play an important role in osmotic pressure, molecular transport, blood coagulation, immune response, etc., are absorbed on the surface of nano-plastics forming plastic-protein complex with size ranging from 13 to 600 nanometers.

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Once plastic particles are fully surrounded by proteins, the plastic-protein complexes are attracted towards each other resulting in aggregation of these complexes. Scientist says that these aggregates in the blood stream can block flow of body fluids. Also, this complex formation leads to structural and conformational changes in the blood proteins rendering them non-functional.

In addition, researchers also tested the interaction of both nano-plastics alone and aggregated plastic-protein complexes with white blood cells and red blood cells. It was found that the aggregated plastic-protein complex is more toxic and potent in causing the death of white and red blood cells than the nano-plastic alone. ‘Next, our research would be focused on how the aggregated micro- and nano-plastic complexes are taken up by cells, their movement within the cell and its related hazards and ailments,’ said Dr. Chandrasekaran.

Also Read: Regulatory alignment play catch up

The research team included Ponnusamy Manogaran Gopinath, Vinayagam Saranya, Shanmugam Vijayakumar, Mohan Mythili Meera, Sharma Ruprekha, Reshamwala Kunal, Agarwal Pranay, John Thomas and Amitava Mukherjee. The results of the study have been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Credits: India Science Wire

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Post Antibiotic World

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 09:25:20 +0000

Like the ‘guardians of the galaxy’ the futuristic prospect of this world will be a place where the microbes have become resilient against antibiotics and the fight against infection has ceased to find its way through antibiotics. Though most of the antibiotics that are consumed are metabolized by the body, a negligible amount is passed through us as waste, which is further carried to wastewater treatment plants.

Also Read: Health and Oral Health Diseases

The basic methodology to clean the wastewater in plants is through membrane bioreactor that uses both biological as well as filtration process where bacteria are acclimatized to consume the waste products and help in metabolization. The antibiotic waste breakdown by bacteria often expresses resistance genes that reduce the effectiveness of the medicines. In the long run, the horizontal gene transfer develops whose expression pass from one generation to the next and the resistance genes gain prominence over the years. With the passing phase, the bacteria grow and thrive itself therefore often giving rise to biomass. The biomass is produced in tonnes by wastewater plants nearly every day. After treatment, they are often disposed of as landfills, fertilizers for agriculture and feed crops for livestock. A minute quantity of resistant bacteria and free-floating DNA often finds its way through effluent of the pharmaceutical industries. The studies have further shown that gene elements called plasmids carry resistance genes for several different types of antibiotics, therefore, resulting in a positive correlation between one type of antibiotic and the resistance gene of another. It creates a dangerous dormant situation that can erupt like an active pandemic under the favourable situation. Plasmids are a thousand times smaller than bacteria and their free-floating nature often surpasses the treatment barriers of the filtration system of the treatment process, therefore making exit through effluents. They further contaminate the surface water and groundwater – the two important sources of drinking water. Researchers have found that even low concentrations of just a single type of antibiotic in the water supply leads to resistance in multiple classes of antibiotics and hence leads to antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Also Read: Health Card of Indian States

Water, as we all know, is the utmost need of our survival. Human body comprises around 60% water and the fact that less consumption of water leads to various diseases in the future. Apart from facts and figure, one simple question we often forget to inquire is where this water is coming from? Surface water i.e. lakes, rivers and ponds or groundwater i.e. tube wells, bore well, well as these are the two sources that give us a glass of water.

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Our health concern and the credulous brainwash of our mind by the various available water filter present scenario and save our planet from the harmful effect of self-made destruction.Effective treatment and management of wastewater from the pharmaceutical industry will help in overcoming antimicrobial resistance. Advanced treatment methods such as reverse osmosis, nano filtration, and membrane bioreactors have shown to be promising processes for cleaning micro pollutants with nano gram per litre (ng/L) concentration levels.The nation where the trial/testing of most of the antibiotic occurs, there are rarely any constraints implemented on the disposal of pharmaceutical wastewater to the surface water. The current scenario of environmental issue foresees that in the near future there will be scarcity of drinking water and our hope was restored when global challenge was taken to in the market often diverts us from our prime concern of keeping our planet safe from water pollution. The pollution of water bodies has been initiated by us and still we are invariably helping it grow with every passing day. As discussed earlier, the various point sources from domestic to industrial pave the way for antibiotic to contaminate the water bodies. According to the latest report of UNICEF, 2.1 billion people lack the access to clean and safe drinking water.

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How do we remove the problem? What do we do to save ourselves from the harmful effects?

The encouraging words of Normal Vincent Peale, American author ‘Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don’t have any problems, you don’t get any seeds’ gives us the hope that we will successfully overcome the present scenario and save our planet from the harmful effect of self-made destruction.Effective treatment and management of wastewater from the pharmaceutical industry will help in overcoming antimicrobial resistance. Advanced treatment methods such as reverse osmosis, nano filtration, and membrane bioreactors have shown to be promising processes for cleaning micro pollutants with nano gram per litre (ng/L) concentration levels.The nation where the trial/testing of most of the antibiotic occurs, there are rarely any constraints implemented on the disposal of pharmaceutical wastewater to the surface water. The current scenario of environmental issue foresees that in the near future there will be scarcity of drinking water and our hope was restored when global challenge was taken to curb the antimicrobial resistance from environment. Remedial measures taken towards eradication are further discussed.

Also Read: Rising burden of non-communicable diseases

Political commitments: International efforts: World Health Organization Jaipur declaration on antimicrobial resistance 2011 recognized AMR as a serious public health threat. With the 2014 WHO Report, the extraordinary rates of AMR prevalent in India came into focus. After this report, joint efforts were made by India and WHO. While WHO labelled AMR as the Flagship Priority area for South East Asia Regional Office (SEARO), the Indian Medical Association launched an awareness programme to train the physicians and sensitize the general public. In 2015, the 68th World Health Assembly decided to incorporate the concept of One Health in the fight against AMR and a Global Action Plan was initiated. All member countries, including India, agreed to frame their own National Action Plans (NAPs) for AMR by 2017.

Also Read: Specific health situation of Indian states

National efforts: The Government of India formulated a Core Working Group on AMR that drafted a NAP for the country. Six strategic priorities were listed in NAP, all of which incorporated considerations for AMR in the environment, directly or indirectly. Further, each strategic priority has defined interventions, activities and outputs, the fulfillment of which is delineated by a timeline projected for the next five years. The NAP, although promising, has not yet come into full action in any of the Indian states so far. To curtail the prevalent malpractice of over-the-counter (OTC) sale of drugs, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization implemented Schedule H1 in India in 2014. It, however, encompasses only a few selected antimicrobial groups. In June 2017, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) published the list of maximum residue levels for antimicrobials in foods prepared from animal, poultry and fish.

Health Organization in India: To know the near-exact extent of AMR, AMR surveillance networks were initiated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in 2013 and 2014, respectively. In 2015, these two organizations along with the support from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) USA, started a systematic assessment of the prevailing IPC practices in India with the aim of formulating new guidelines for preventing hospital-acquired infections.

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These activities, however, cater basically to the emerging AMR in the healthcare settings and do not include special provisions for AMR in the environment. Similarly, the National Health Mission’s National Health Systems Resource Centre and the National Accreditation Board deal with IPC practices and strengthening of laboratories/hospitals and not with the AMR in the environment per se. The importance of AMR in the environment has been realized recently by the national health authorities and The National Health Policy 2017 calls for a rapid standardization of guidelines regarding antibiotic use, limiting the use of antibiotics as OTC medications, banning or restricting the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animal livestock, and pharma co-vigilance including prescription audits inclusive of antibiotic usage – in the hospital and community.

Innovative ideas: The National Health Mission of India started the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or the Swachh India Mission to improve the basic hygiene and sanitation in all spheres of life. As a part of this massive programme, education was imparted through mass media on the health hazards of open defecation. UNICEF data shows that out of one billion openly defecating people in the world, 60 percent reside in India. It is further argued that it is a behavioural problem with the Indians as other poverty struck nations of Africa and South East Asia did not have the problem of open defecation to this an extent. To deal with such socio-cultural issues, innovative ideas along with mass media are needed in India.

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So far in India, antimicrobial resistance in the environment has been a topic of least priority. With an ever-increasing threat of AMR in the environment, immediate action is required to halt its progress and spread. A combined effort of multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach will be able to eradicate the problem in the near future.

About the author

Dr. Debleena Bhattacharya is an independent researcher. She is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at MEFGI, India. She holds a doctoral degree in Environmental Science from IIT (Indian School of Mines) Dhanbad (India). Her specialisation is in the field of wastewater treatment and biotechnology.

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Chewing Tobacco – Storehouse of Toxic Chemicals

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 11:09:12 +0000

Smokeless tobacco products like gutka and khaini are known to be cancer-causing. The Indian scientists have recently prepared a database of toxic substances which are found in various chewing tobacco products sold not only in India and South Asia but globally.

As of now, they have identified a staggering 233 unique chemical compounds from 82 types of chewing tobacco products sold in nine countries including US and Sweden. Of the 233 chemical compounds, 69 are known carcinogens as classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Among the chemical compounds, major categories present in smokeless tobacco products include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), followed by radionucleotides, metals and metalloids as well as additives.The database is called SLTChemDB and is developed at the National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR) of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). This is supposed to be the first such comprehensive database of smokeless tobacco products globally, according to scientists.

“It will function as a reliable resource for stakeholders including policymakers, scientists, researchers and tobacco control advocates globally to better understand smokeless tobacco products and the industry manufacturing the products,” explained Dr. Ravi Mehrotra, Director of NICPR, while speaking to India Science Wire.

Over 350 million people consume smokeless tobacco globally and about 0.65 million die every year due to its consumption. “The chemical profiling of these products available in a user- friendly database will help in taking a timely policy action on the prevention and control of smokeless tobacco globally and also address diseases induced by their use,” he added.

The information for the database was sourced from already published scientific literature and was curated from different chemical web servers and databases.One can search for any tobacco product and retrieve information relating to its chemical composition, pH, moisture, nicotine free and tobacco content, besides biological, toxicological and physicochemical information of chemical compounds.

India Science Wire

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NANOCHIP TO DELIVER BIOLOGICAL

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 09:34:19 +0000

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Researchers at the Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center and Ohio state’s College of Engineering have developed a new technology, Tissue Nano Transfection (TNT), that can generate any cell type of interest for treatment within the patient’s own body with a single touch. This TNT does not require any laboratory-based procedures and may be implemented at the point of care. This technology may be used to repair injured tissue or restore function of aging tissue, including organs, blood vessels and nerve cells. Results of the regenerative medicine study is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Researchers studied mice and pigs in their experiments where they were able to reprogram skin cells to become vascular cells in badly injured legs that lacked blood flow. Within one week, active blood vessels appeared in the injured leg and by the second week, the leg was saved. The technology was also shown to reprogram skin cells in the live body into nerve cells that were injected into brain-injured mice to help them recover from stroke.

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HEALTHY INTENTIONS FOR A HEALTHY WORLD

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 06:10:32 +0000

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Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite is a leading health services and systems researcher with an international reputation for his work investigating and contributing to systems improvement. He has particular expertise in the culture and structure of acute settings, leadership, management and change in health sector organisations, quality and safety in health care, accreditation and surveying processes in international context and the restructuring of health services. In an exclusive interview with VIGYAN ARYA of InnoHEALTH he responds to the growing global concerns of health and medicare.

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Q1. What is the prime objective of the institute you are leading: Australian Institute of Health Innovations?

The Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI) at Macquarie University conducts world-class research with national and international research communities, governments, policymakers, providers of health services, managers, clinicians, patients and the community. Our work underpins health reforms and systems improvement, providing new tools, perspectives and evidence to help stakeholders who are interested in making the health system more effective, efficient and productive. Our overarching aim is to produce new, high-quality research evidence to support change, prevention and improvement.in the Australian health system, and internationally.

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Q2. Could you share some of the achievements of the institute in the recent past?

As highlights of 2016, we are currently running over 77 different funded projects valued at almost $40 million, and participating in another 17 grants administered by other institutions worth a similar amount. Overall, we attracted new funding in 2016 valued in excess of $15 million. One notable milestone is that we secured the largest grant ever awarded to the Institute and the largest to Macquarie University in 2016: the NHMRC Partnership Centre in Health System Sustainability, valued at $10.75 million. In that project we are trying to create more sustainable systems of care.

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Q 3. The contributions of the institute (and yours) limited to Australia or its implications are international? Can you elaborate on it with some examples?

In 2015 Professor Enrico Coiera won the highest international award for digital health—the IMIA Francois Gremy Award of Excellence. He is a highly influential commentator on national e-health strategies, advocating strongly for rational policy making based on sound evidence. His work has translated into policy and practice changes for e-health safety, multiple patented inventions, as well as for a US-based consumer e-health start-up company. He is author of one of the earliest textbooks on health informatics, which is widely used internationally, translated into multiple languages and now in its 3rd edition. Professor Coiera is the lead researcher, along with colleague Dr Annie Lau, of healthy.me, a personal health management system.

Professor Johanna Westbrook is an elected a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (AC MI) – one of only four Australians. In 2014 she was named Australian ICT professional of the year by the Australian Information Industry Association for her research contributions. In 2015 she was appointed as an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA). She was also appointed Chair of the Deeble Institute Advisory Board by the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association in 2015. The Institute has a major focus on driving evidence-based health policy. In 2016 Johanna was elected by members to the Sax Institute Board. In 2016, Professor Westbrook was appointed by the Federal Minister for Health to the Board of the Australian Digital Health Agency and chairs the national Digital Health Quality and Safety Governance Committee.

Our landmark CareTrack Australia study revealed, in 2012, Australians receive “appropriate” healthcare in only 57 percent of consultations. A follow-up study to CareTrack Australia, “CareTrack Kids” will, for the first time, determine the percentage of healthcare encounters at which Australian children receive evidence- and consensus-based care for 16 paediatric conditions and examine the frequency and types of adverse events involving Australian children. We aim to deliver a range of important outcomes in this highly significant and overdue research. Led by Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite and Peter Hibbert, this research stream is building on CareTrack Australia’s findings to pilot new approaches to clinical standards and to explore digital platforms for their delivery. This stream aims to provide a new evidence base to reduce healthcare costs and improve care by helping clinicians deliver the right care at the right time to the right patients.

The Work Observation Method by Activity Timing (WOMBAT ) developed by Institute staff led by Professor Westbrook, and now used by over 30 research teams around the world, has produced new opportunities to undertake international collaborative studies. This measures how care is delivered using a hand held device, looking at how clinical care actually takes place.

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Q 4. Are there any biological/medicinal differences in the needs and concerns of original Aborigines in Australia and its broadly expat population?

Everyone deserves good care. Australia has been trying very hard in recent years to provide high quality services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands populations. Many live in remote areas, and it has been hard to narrow the gap between the health status of those populations and other members of Australian society. Governments in Australia are making investments in this situation.

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Q 5. What is your institute doing to address the needs and concerns of Australian Aborigines, who are genetically distant from the rest of the Australian expat population?

While this is not our area of expertise, we strongly support colleagues who do research on these populations. This is very important work. Most of our studies include a wide range of patient groups including those from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.

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Q 6. Can you highlight some of the achievements of the institute in Emotional Health sector since it invests a lot in resources in this field?

We are very interested in doing research with clinicians who are want to deliver the best care that resources permit to patients. We are also interested in ensuring that patients are involved in decisions about their care. We have done a great deal of work with both groups.

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Q 7. What, according to you, are going to be the biggest challenges for Australia and the world for securing a healthy society and combat future medical challenges?

To my mind, three things are important. One is digital health: ensuring we get the greatest advantage from investments in future e-health and information systems. The second is patient safety and quality of care. It is critical that we make further inroads into keeping patients safe and improving the quality of their care. In particular, we need to understand when things go right as well as when things go wrong. Third, we need to build sustainable health systems: ones that are built to last, and flexible enough that they can cope with future changes and innovations.

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Q 8. On personal front, where do you draw the line between medical marvels and miracles?

I don’t personally believe in miracles. I am very much appreciative, as a scientist, of the benefits to be gained by the application of evidence, science and technology to improve the health system for the benefit of our patients. This is the real marvel.I don’t personally believe in miracles. I am very much appreciative, as a scientist, of the benefits to be gained by the application of evidence, science and technology to improve the health system for the benefit of our patients. This is the real marvel.

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Q 9. What are your expectations from the global medical community and what direction would you see governments and people should invest in?

In my next edited book, involving care delivered to patients in 60 countries, I found four things that were success factors in improving care. One is to start with a pilot program, and then scale it up. A second is the importance of having good data on which to base decisions about systems and care. A third is to ensure that multiple stakeholders are involved in complex improvement initiatives. And a fourth is that the benchmark for improvement must be the patient, rather than other stakeholders’ views on the care we need to provide.

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Q 10. How do you see innovations of your country linked to Indian which is well known for frugal innovations, do you think some collaboration at working level to take it forward for benefit of both countries in view of two countries’ Prime Ministers have signed recently MoU of collaboration?

This is an excellent idea. India and Australia have many things to learn from each other, and have been friends for many years not just because of our shared interest in cricket and because of our ties as members of the Commonwealth. We are natural partners in ensuring a better health system for our respective countries, and teaching each other about innovative things we have done.

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